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enThis Guy From Baltimore Is Raising a Christian Army to Fight ISIS…What Could Go Wrong? http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/matthew-vandyke-isis-assyrian-army
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</section><section id="mobile-header"><img alt="" src="https://www.motherjones.com/files/vandykemaster.jpg"><p id="author">By <a href="/authors/jenna-mclaughlin" target="_blank">Jenna McLaughlin</a> | Thurs May 28, 2015 06:00 AM ET</p>
</section><p><span class="dropCap">I</span>n late February, a Baltimore-born, self-proclaimed freedom fighter named Matthew VanDyke <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/on-the-record/2015/02/24/american-training-iraqi-army-fight-isis-speaks-out">beamed</a> into Greta Van Susteren's Fox News show from Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region. A few days earlier, he <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vandyke.matthew/posts/653662501426431">had announced</a> on Facebook that he was in Iraq to "raise and train a Christian army to fight" ISIS and that he had formed a company called Sons of Liberty International (SOLI) to provide "free military consulting and training to local forces fighting terrorists and oppressive regimes." For months, the so-called Islamic State had terrorized Iraq's Assyrian Christians, forcing many to flee their homes and villages and seek safe haven among the Kurds. With ISIS on the march across Iraq and Syria&mdash;and making headlines for its brutal beheadings of journalists and aid workers&mdash;the story of an American taking an on-the-ground role in the fight sparked a media frenzy. VanDyke, who is 35 and holds a <a href="http://www.matthewvandyke.com/events/speech-georgetown-university.html">master's</a> degree in security studies from Georgetown, was soon featured by media outlets across the country, including the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/12/us/disenchanted-by-civilian-life-veterans-volunteer-to-fight-isis.html?_r=0"><em>New York Times</em></a>, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/02/23/army-of-assyrian-christians-aims-to-fight-islamic-state/23914327/"><em>USA Today</em></a>, <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-rodricks-0224-20150223-column.html">the <em>Baltimore Sun</em></a>, and <a href="http://www.today.com/id/57111581/ns/msnbc-hardball_with_chris_matthews/t/hardball-chris-matthews-thursday-march-th/">MSNBC.</a></p>
<p>This wasn't the first time VanDyke had become a media sensation. A few years earlier VanDyke had made international headlines after he was captured in Libya, where he had been fighting alongside rebel forces to overturn the regime of Moammar Qaddafi. He eventually escaped, and he would later <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sons-of-liberty-international-trains-iraqi-christians-for-the-fight-against-isis-300081178.html">say</a> that his Christian faith deepened during his six-month imprisonment. A <a href="http://pointandshootfilm.com/">film</a> about VanDyke, who had traveled across the Arab world by motorcycle, won best documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014.</p>
<section class="inline"><img alt="" class="image" src="http://assets.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/vandyke_01.png"><div class="captionSmall">Matthew VanDyke speaks with reporters at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport after returning home from Libya in 2011. <span class="credit">Patrick Semansky/AP</span>&nbsp;</div>
</section><p>"So, tell me what we can do to help?" Fox's Van Susteren asked VanDyke, as he described his latest venture. VanDyke, who sported a beard and black suit and tie, made a plea for funding to continue the effort. "We're really stalled right now, unable to really continue," he explained. "I've put about $12,000 of my own money in and I'm going broke doing this, so we really need donations from the public to help these Christians defend themselves and take the fight against ISIS."</p>
<p>But as VanDyke solicited donations, his operation was in trouble. By the end of February, the military director of the Iraqi Christian militia VanDyke's company was training would issue a press release formally severing the group's ties with the American (though he would later rekindle his relationship with VanDyke and SOLI). Meanwhile, the initial crop of US military veterans VanDyke had brought to Iraq as trainers had abruptly quit<a href="#correction">*</a>,<strong> </strong>citing concerns that VanDyke may not have obtained US government authorization to provide military training to foreign nationals, as required by US law. Flouting such rules can carry <a href="http://www.research.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/u21/8.%20Penalties%20for%20Export%20Violations.pdf">massive fines</a>&mdash;even prison time.</p>
<p>Asked how he had prepared for this training operation, in terms of obtaining permission from US or Iraqi authorities, VanDyke told <em>Mother Jone</em>s that initially "nobody was sanctioning it." He added, "Part of the whole purpose of SOLI is to step in where governments had failed, so going and asking permission from the governments that have already failed is not particularly productive." (VanDyke later said that his company had "complied with US registration requirements.")</p>
<aside class="full pullQuote">"Part of the whole purpose of SOLI is to step in where governments had failed, so going and asking permission from the governments that have already failed is not particularly productive," says VanDyke, who describes his effort as "crowdfunding a war against ISIS."</aside><p>VanDyke says his company is "crowdfunding a war against ISIS." And SOLI notes on its <a href="http://www.sonsoflibertyinternational.com/">website</a> that it is "the first security contracting firm run as a non-profit." But elsewhere on the site, the company notes that "Sons of Liberty International (SOLI) is not a non-profit or 501c3; support is not tax deductible. SOLI is a company that operates on a non-profit business model." VanDyke won't disclose how much he has raised or spent. Doing so, he maintains, would put lives in danger: "I can't give a number for how much we raised, because I don't want our personnel kidnapped&hellip;The moment we announce what's in the account, then our people become more of a target, and then we get grabbed and that's what they're gonna ask for."<br>
&nbsp;</p>
<p><span class="section-lead">Last summer, ISIS</span> began targeting the Assyrians of northern Iraq, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world. Militants massacred civilians, blew up ancient artifacts, and bulldozed settlements, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32273672">including</a> the 3,000-year-old city of Nimrud. Horrified by the slaughter&mdash;and by the beheadings of journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, both of whom VanDyke knew&mdash;he began contacting Iraqi Christian political leaders and offering his services to train a militia to repel the Islamic State from their territory. VanDyke wasn't the only one with this idea. A California-based <a href="http://www.americanmesopotamian.org/uploads/66603/American_Mesopotamian_Organization-_Press_Release.pdf">nonprofit</a> group <a href="http://www.americanmesopotamian.org/">called</a> the American Mesopotamian Organization had undertaken a similar effort, dubbed "Restore Nineveh Now," to help the Assyrians defend themselves. Both VanDyke and the AMO would separately begin working with an upstart militia group that eventually dubbed itself the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU).</p>
<p>After securing the backing of some local leaders, VanDyke, who has no formal military training, began recruiting US military veterans to forge the NPU into a well-disciplined fighting force. One of his first calls was to Michael Cunningham, a retired Army sergeant who was featured in <em>Restrepo</em>, Sebastian Junger's 2010 documentary about the fierce fighting in Afghanistan's Korengal valley. VanDyke and Cunningham had met at a film festival, where Marshall Curry's documentary on VanDyke, <em>Point and Shoot</em>, was screened alongside <em>Restrepo</em>.</p>
<p>"How do you feel about going over and training a Christian army to fight ISIS?" Cunningham recalls VanDyke asking him. Cunningham, who was finding it difficult to adjust to civilian life, tentatively signed on. But, he says, he knew VanDyke had some significant groundwork to cover before they could begin their work. Most important, VanDyke had to get formal approval from the State Department. The Arms Export and Control Act requires US citizens to obtain State Department licensing before offering formal or informal military services to foreigners. This includes providing training or military equipment. A subsection of the law known as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations stipulates that licenses should be denied unless the activities are "in the interest of the security and foreign policy of the US."&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Cunningham says he repeatedly pressed VanDyke to obtain State Department approval. "I asked him every month leading up to our departure," he recalls. "He was like, 'No problem, I know all these people, and everything will be fine.'"</p>
<p>Cunningham's worries persisted throughout November, as VanDyke organized their trip, but his misgivings were eclipsed by a personal crisis. Cunningham's relationship fell apart, he was unemployed, and he was crashing on the couches of friends and relatives. "I could be homeless, or go to Iraq," he remembers. "So I left."<br>
&nbsp;</p>
<p><span class="section-lead">As VanDyke and Cunningham</span> finalized their plans, the American Mesopotamian Organization, a nonprofit founded in 2009 to champion the interests of the Assyrian people, had been actively fundraising to equip and train the NPU, the same local force that VanDyke planned to work with. The AMO would eventually amass at least $250,000 to fund the militia, though the group, aware of legal concerns, was careful about how these funds were spent. It <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/02/06/iraqi-christians-form-anti-isis-militia-and-you-can-legally-fund-them">did not</a> supply weapons, according to Jeff Gardner, the spokesman for the AMO's Restore Nineveh Now project. The AMO planned to use some of the funds to hire a military contractor to train the NPU in basic security procedures and community policing techniques. (According to Gardner, the AMO was not required to receive State Department approval because it would not be supplying weapons or providing military training.)</p>
<p>When VanDyke entered the picture, the NPU decided to work with both him and the AMO. VanDyke's arrival on the scene caught the AMO off guard. "I did not know that he existed," says David Lazar, the AMO's founder. "I had never heard of him." Lazar asked Gardner to keep tabs on VanDyke and check his background.</p>
<p>On December 10, when Cunningham and VanDyke arrived in Erbil, the NPU had already assembled an initial crop of about 25 men for them to train. Working out of the small Assyrian village of Sharafiya, Cunningham put the recruits through a US-military style boot camp. Each day started with physical conditioning followed by what VanDyke describes as "combat simulations," which included training in general military tactics, such as how to maneuver under fire. According to a training plan obtained by <em>Mother Jones</em>, the program also provided instruction in "room clearing," "military operations in urban terrain," "mortar employment," and "communicating and coordinating targets."</p>
<section><img alt="" class="image" src="http://assets.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/line_up_final_logo_630.png" width="630"><div class="captionSmall">NPU members line up for early morning training in Iraq. <span class="credit">Jeff Gardner, <a href="http://www.picturechristians.org/" target="_blank">Picture Christians Project</a></span></div>
</section><p>SOLI's training program was "secret," VanDyke says, "and it actually remained that way for December, January, and February." He says it was important to keep the program under wraps for safety reasons, since the Islamic State's stronghold in Mosul was less than 25 miles away from its training camp. According to VanDyke, he ultimately revealed the existence of the training effort&mdash;though not the location of where it was happening&mdash;because he was running out of money and needed to solicit funds to keep the project going.</p>
<p>During the first month of the program, VanDyke says, the State Department had no idea his training operation existed. He eventually met with State Department officials at the consulate in Erbil to explain what he was doing. "When we went to the State Department and told them we'd been in country over a month training this force, it was a surprise to them," he notes. "Essentially we were running a covert camp."</p>
<aside class="full pullQuote">"When we went to the State Department and told them we'd been in country over a month training this force, it was a surprise to them," he notes. "Essentially we were running a covert camp. Nobody was sanctioning it."</aside><p>VanDyke says the State Department officials he met with responded positively to his training effort: "They encouraged us to continue working with NPU leadership."</p>
<p>But a State Department official says, "We have checked with State Department personnel at our Consulate in Erbil and they have conveyed no such" approval of VanDyke's training program.</p>
<p>In interviews with <em>Mother Jones</em>, VanDyke repeatedly said the State Department was initially unaware of his training efforts. He subsequently stated in an email that "Sons of Liberty International complied with US registration requirements prior to signing a contract with the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), as required by U.S. law." The State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls&mdash;with which all US-based military and security firms planning to provide services overseas must register&mdash;does not make public its registrants. But according to that office, approved registrants receive a certification form that they are free to share. VanDyke did not respond to a request to provide this documentation.</p>
<p>David Ellison, an arms-trafficking-law expert and consultant, said the penalties for providing military training to foreigners without State Department approval can be harsh, including millions of dollars in fines and possible criminal prosecution. "This all sounds very bad," Ellison says of VanDkye's training program. Scott Gearity, an expert on the Arms Export and Control Act at BSG Consulting, says that VanDyke's activities might pose a problem: "This doesn't seem like a very ambiguous case."</p>
<p>In the past, the Justice Department has aggressively prosecuted military contractors who violate the Export and Control Act. One high-profile case involved the infamous military contractor Blackwater, which in 2010 was <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/charlotte/press-releases/2012/academi-blackwater-charged-and-enters-deferred-prosecution-agreement">forced</a> to pay the US government $42 million for violations that included offering "defense services" to the government of the Sudan "without first having obtained a license from the US Department of State," according to an FBI press release on the settlement. As part of this case, Blackwater was charged with illegally providing training to Canadian law enforcement and military personnel.<br>
&nbsp;</p>
<p><span class="section-lead">Soon after Christmas</span> in 2014, the initial group of 25 NPU recruits graduated from SOLI's training program, and VanDyke returned to the United States to fundraise. Cunningham stayed behind to train the next class of recruits. The NPU had received hundreds of applications from Iraqi Christians eager to receive military training, and it chose 350 to participate in the next session. To accommodate this larger class, the Kurds gave VanDyke use of a former US base known as the Manila Training Center.</p>
<p>Because this contingent would be far too large for Cunningham to train on his own, he and VanDyke agreed that he would recruit a few friends&mdash;all of them US military veterans with experience in the Middle East&mdash;to join him in Iraq. The men would be unpaid. "They were volunteers, and they knew they were volunteers from the start," VanDyke says. "We were going to try to fundraise, and if we fundraised, we had maybe the possibility of paying trainers in the future. But none of these guys came over expecting payment and wanting payment&hellip;The entire point of SOLI was to be all-volunteer."</p>
<section><img alt="" class="image" src="http://assets.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/mikebirthday.png"><div class="captionSmall">The NPU throws a surprise birthday party for Michael Cunningham in Iraq. <span class="credit">Michael Cunningham</span></div>
</section><p>According to Cunningham and two of the trainers he recruited, they were each under the impression that VanDyke was trying to raise money to pay them. "I put off signing up for school for this," says Miguel Gutierrez, a former Army corporal, who also appeared in <em>Restrepo</em>. "I got hopes and dreams. I didn't get paid."</p>
<p>By mid-January, with the second training program underway, Cunningham and the other trainers grew increasingly worried that they might be operating in Iraq illegally. Cunningham was concerned enough that when it was time to provide firearms training to the NPU recruits, he brought in members of the Kurdish military to teach them how to shoot. (In an interview, VanDyke dismissed the concerns of SOLI's trainers: "They perhaps were worried about getting in trouble when they came back for what they had done, which is ridiculous.")</p>
<p>In late January, the American Mesopotamian Organization's Gardner visited Iraq to check on the NPU's progress. He was also curious to find out more about VanDyke.</p>
<p>When Gardner visited the Manila Training Center, VanDyke was still in the United States. But Gardner did meet Cunningham and the other SOLI trainers, who unloaded on VanDyke. "They told me, 'We cannot work with this guy,'" Gardner recalls. The trainers complained that VanDyke's operation was disorganized, unprofessional&mdash;and possibly illegal.</p>
<p>Based on Gardner's conversations with the trainers and others at the training camp, the AMO urged the NPU to cut its ties with VanDyke. The militia's leaders agreed to do so after SOLI's second training program ended in early February, according to Gardner.</p>
<p>By mid-February, Cunningham and the three trainers he'd recruited quit. Cunningham says he delivered the news to VanDyke in a phone call, telling him, "I don't want to work with you; I can't work with you." According to Cunningham, VanDyke told him he had "fucked up real bad" for quitting. In a subsequent conversation, Cunningham claims, VanDyke made a loosely veiled threat: "I'll never forget: He says, 'I met with my [Kurdish secret] police friend and I told him about the situation between you and me, and he wanted to do something about it&hellip;You know [they] don't have the best human rights record. I tried to call it off.'" VanDyke denies threatening Cunningham and calls him a "disgruntled former associate."</p>
<p>On February 28&mdash;five days after VanDyke went on Greta Van Susteren's show to tout his effort to build a Christian militia&mdash;the NPU issued a press release stating that it was no longer working with him. "The rank and leadership of the NPU wishes to clarify that Mr. VanDyke and his company Sons of Liberty International are no longer being employed in any capacity by the Nineveh Plains Protection Units," the release noted, "and have not been since February 19, 2015."</p>
<p>Gevara Zaya, the NPU's military director, also sent a letter directly to VanDyke. "Your services are no longer being employed in any capacity," he wrote. "Please refrain from using any image, title, or reference to the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU) in any capacity, commercial or otherwise." (VanDyke says he never received this letter.)</p>
<section><img alt="" class="image" src="http://assets.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/screen_shot_2015-04-30_at_10.31.51_am_630.png"><div class="captionSmall">Gevara Zaya's letter to Matthew VanDyke</div>
</section><p>In an email interview, Zaya said that he was surprised and aggravated by VanDyke's media blitz. Though he was satisfied with SOLI's work at the training camp, Zaya noted, he believed that VanDyke was inflating his role with the NPU. "He was appearing in the media and spoke like he [was] our savior," Zaya wrote.</p>
<p>A few weeks later, in late April, Zaya sent a text message to <em>Mother Jones</em> to say that he wanted to revise his earlier comments about VanDyke: "While we were glad to have Matthew speak good about us&hellip;Matthew and us do not want people to think&hellip;he was a leader of NPU. [The] press release [was] to make clear that he is not a leader of NPU." Contrary to the NPU's press release and his letter to VanDyke, Zaya now said the NPU had never cut ties with VanDyke and that the NPU was considering a new training proposal from SOLI.</p>
<p>The AMO was dismayed that VanDyke was back in the picture, and continued to press NPU leaders to disassociate themselves from him. "The Assyrian people have suffered enough," Gardner says. "What they need are selfless men and women who have the skill and dedication to build a unified and peaceful future for all of Iraq's people. VanDyke's misadventures with a camcorder will likely have the opposite effect."</p>
<p>On May 11, VanDyke once again took to Facebook, this time to announce that he had launched a "leadership training" program for NPU sergeants and officers, led by a "former West Point instructor." He linked to a Sons of Liberty International <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sons-of-liberty-international-trains-iraqi-christians-for-the-fight-against-isis-300081178.html" target="_blank">press release</a>, in which VanDyke was quoted saying, "The Christian community in Iraq has been pushed around for a long time, and it needs to stop. I have the right connections and experience to help."</p>
<p>Days later, SOLI issued another <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150520006538/en/Sons-Liberty-International-Completes-Military-Training-Iraqi#.VV859VVVikq" target="_blank">press release</a> noting that VanDyke's training program had been cut short. In a press release, VanDyke reported that the NPU had been barred access to the Assyrian Democratic Movement's headquarters, where the training of fighters was taking place.<a href="#correction">*</a> He blamed the AMO for this development. "The result is that SOLI cannot provide the NPU with additional free training or resources&hellip;at this time," VanDyke said in the press release. "Denying the NPU access to a training program before they are deployed against ISIS is unconscionable. It will likely result in the death of NPU soldiers."</p>
<p>Undeterred after his break with the NPU, VanDyke was meeting with other Christian forces in Iraq to pitch his services, according to the release. "SOLI looks forward to its next mission to support the Christian community of Iraq in their fight against ISIS," he said.</p>
</div>
<p id="correction"><em>Clarification: According to VanDyke, there was a fifth trainer who left the program on good terms.</em></p>
<p id="correction"><em>Correction: A previous version of this article inaccurately said that VanDyke reported that the ADM's ban had been directed at SOLI.</em></p></body></html>
PoliticsFull WidthCrime and JusticeForeign PolicyHuman RightsInternationalIraqMediaMilitaryTop StoriesThu, 28 May 2015 15:25:38 +0000Jenna McLaughlin274556 at http://www.motherjones.comYour City Is Probably Not Going to Be Hit By A Terrorist Attackhttp://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/05/list-cities-most-risk-terrorist-attacks-probably-wont-suprise-you
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<html><body><p>Americans are understandably<a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/american-fear-74-see-catastrophic-terrorist-attack-inside-united-states/article/2558294" target="_blank"> terrified of terror attacks</a>. But good news! These fears have nothing to do with actual data. According to a new tool released last week, n<a href="http://maplecroft.com/portfolio/new-analysis/2015/05/20/abuja-cairo-nairobi-and-islamabad-among-12-capital-cities-facing-extreme-terrorism-risks-verisk-maplecroft/" target="_blank">o US cities are among the world's 50 most at risk of terror attacks</a>.</p>
<p>The index, designed by UK based Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk assessment firm, calculates the risk of terror attacks in "1,300 of the world&rsquo;s most important commercial hubs and urban centers" using historic trends. By logging and analyzing every reported attack or event per 100 square meters and calculating the frequency and severity of those&nbsp;incidents, Maplecroft's tool establishes a baseline for the past five years. Then, it compares that data with the number, frequency, and severity of attacks for the most recent year. Depending on the most recent statistics, cities move up or down on the list of cities at risk for terror attacks.</p>
<p>What cities are in danger? Cities near ISIS.&nbsp;Baghdad&nbsp;is the most terror prone city, followed by five other places in Iraq&mdash;including Mosul, an ISIS stronghold in northern Iraq, and Al Ramadi, ISIS's <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/26/middleeast/iraq-ramadi-inside-the-fight/" target="_blank">most recent </a>hostile takeover. In just one year, as of February, over 1,000 residents of Baghdad lost their lives in one of the almost 400 terror attacks the city endured.</p>
<p>A total of 27 of the 64 countries at "extreme risk" are located in the Middle East, and 19 are in Asia. Residents living in the capital cities of Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Tripoli face some of the strongest risks of terror attacks as well. Maplecroft <a href="http://maplecroft.com/portfolio/new-analysis/2015/05/20/abuja-cairo-nairobi-and-islamabad-among-12-capital-cities-facing-extreme-terrorism-risks-verisk-maplecroft/" target="_blank">points</a> to the risk of terror incidents in high-ranking countries like Egypt, Israel, Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan as major threats to US commercial interests.</p>
<p>And, recent events have triggered some cities to climb in the rankings. Prior to the Charlie Hebdo attack, Paris didn't even make the top 200 most at risk cities. But according to the current index, the French capital jumped over 100 spots, now coming in at&nbsp;97. Increasing violence purported by African militant groups, including Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al Shabaab in Somalia, have heightened the risk of terror incidents in African nations, landing 14 countries in the top 64.</p>
<p>So stop freaking out about terror attacks, America.</p></body></html>
MoJoAfghanistanForeign PolicyHuman RightsInternationalTop StoriesNational SecurityWed, 27 May 2015 18:32:15 +0000Jenna McLaughlin275941 at http://www.motherjones.comThe Tea Party's Most Hated Presidential Hopeful? Hint: Not Hillary Clintonhttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/tea-party-lindsey-graham-conservative-2016
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<html><body><p>The tea party hates South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, and the feeling is mutual. It attacked the Republican lawmaker mercilessly during his Senate reelection campaign in 2014, but Graham held his seat with <a href="http://ballotpedia.org/Lindsey_Graham" target="_blank">55</a> percent of the vote. "Kicking the crap out of the tea party is the most fun Senator Lindsey Graham has ever had," <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/06/how-lindsey-graham-stomped-the-tea-party/372521/">wrote</a> Molly Ball for <em>The Atlantic</em> last June after interviewing the South Carolina Republican on the eve of his primary election victory, when he faced six no-name challengers, one of them a tea party pick, in his deep red state's Republican primary.</p>
<p>On June 1, Graham plans to join the crowded GOP 2016 field, according to his preannouncement on <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/lindsey-graham-2016-presidential-announcement-june-1-118047.html" target="_blank">Monday</a>. And his soon-to-be presidential campaign raises the question: How will the Graham/tea pary feud continue?</p>
<p>The animosity between this three-term senator and tea partiers began before his 2014 reelection campaign, triggered in part by Graham's intermittent attempts to work with Democrats in the Senate. Such moves have enraged staunch conservatives. The Greenville GOP compiled a list of <a href="http://www.greenvillegop.com/files/dmfile/CensureofLindseyGraham.pdf" target="_blank">29 offenses </a>that they "strongly disapprove of and hold to be fundamentally inconsistent with the principles of the South Carolina Republican Party."<a href="#correction">*</a> Right-wing blogs have <a href="http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2013/02/poor-flimsy-lindsey-graham-teabag-mad.html" target="_blank">nicknamed </a>him <a href="http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2015/05/19/lindsey-graham-is-for-real/" target="_blank">"Flimsy Lindsey"</a> and <a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2011/02/07/lindsey-grahamnesty-rides-yet-again/" target="_blank">"Grahmnesty"</a> because he disagreed with his party on climate change, immigration reform, and a few other hot-button Republican issues.</p>
<p>Climate change triggered the first tea party salvos against Graham. In the fall of 2009, tea partiers in South Carolina and beyond bashed Graham for his support of energy legislation that aimed at reducing carbon emissions. In an editorial titled "Graham's Dalliance With Cap-And-Trade Crowd a Bad Move," Michael Costello of the Idaho's<em> Lewiston Tribune</em> <a href="http://lmtribune.com/opinion/graham-s-dalliance-with-cap-and-trade-crowd-a-bad/article_bcaff2dc-48ae-5ca5-8b88-981b70e7cefb.html">wrote</a>, "If Republicans really want to completely alienate this crowd and give birth to a third party, they should follow the lead of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC). [He] has thrown his lot in with John Kerry (D-Mass) to push one of the worst pieces of legislation in American history, the carbon cap and trade bill."</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29476.html" target="_blank">Soon after that</a>, as <em>Politico</em> reported, the conflict between Graham and tea partiers "sparked a mutiny back home" in South Carolina. The Charleston County Republican Party, in a written resolution, slammed Graham for stabbing Republicans in the back and undercutting "Republican leadership and party solidarity for his own benefit." <em>Politico</em> noted that "bubbling" conservative discontent blew up because of the climate change bill but was also fueled by Graham's support for immigration reform and changes at the US detention facility Guantanamo Bay. Graham, a hawk who often criticizes President Barack Obama's national security policies, didn't try to make peace with his conservative critics. Instead, he called detractors of immigration reform "bigots" and refused to disavow or stop his occasional bipartisan efforts.</p>
<p>"I'm making that a tea party goal to get scoundrels like Lindsey Graham out of office," Greg Deitz, a Charleston Tea Party organizer, <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29476.html" target="_blank">told <em>Politico</em></a>.</p>
<p>In 2010, about 100 tea party activists gathered outside Graham's office in Greenville, South Carolina, to protest his support for the bipartisan climate bill. "No cap and trade," they chanted. Two different countywide GOP organizations in South Carolina voted to <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/11/county-gop-censures-lindsey-graham-on-a-host-of-issues/30012/" target="_blank">censure Graham </a>noting that "in the name of bipartisanship&mdash;[he] continues to weaken the Republican brand and tarnish the ideals of freedom, rule of law, and fiscal conservatism."</p>
<p>Tea party activists routinely booed him when he spoke at town hall meetings. At one gathering at the Bluffton Library <a href="http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/06/01/1259053/graham-gets-a-little-heat-from.html">in June 2010</a>, activists in the audience interrupted Graham with angry questions and accusations when he asked what the biggest problems facing the world were. One audience member, according to the <em>Beaufort Gazette</em>, told Graham to "be conservative and quit reaching across the aisle."</p>
<p>Graham further upset the tea party by <a href="http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-220567711.html">meeting</a> with Obama several times to discuss working together on various issues, such as "<span class="SS_L3"><span class="verdana">closing Guant&aacute;namo Bay and bringing terror suspects to justice," according to <em>Newsweek</em>.</span></span> Graham was a former military prosecutor who served on the Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, and Joe Biden invited him over to his home for a steak dinner to discuss Afghanistan.</p>
<p>In July, 2010, Graham <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/magazine/04graham-t.html?_r=0" target="_blank">told </a>the <em>New York Times</em> that the tea party would "die out" because "they can never come up with a coherent vision for governing the country."</p>
<p>A few months later, though, Graham tried to mend a few fences. In September, during a private meeting with tea party organizers in North Charleston, he attempted to address tea partiers' concerns. Later, he praised the movement in interviews, including one with <em>Politico</em> where he said <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/1210/Graham_Next_Congress_is_Tea_Party_.html">tea party activists</a> "[came] to Washington talking about reducing spending. Thank God they're here." He <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/264608/senate-trio-takes-social-security-reform-robert-costa" target="_blank">even </a>tried to get the Senate's two tea party caucus founders, Rand Paul and Mike Lee, to help him push legislation on Social Security in 2011, which would raise the retirement age to 70 and cut retirement benefits for the wealthy. By August 2011, around the second time he asked for a private meeting with local tea party leaders, Graham bragged to the Associated Press that his new push for fiscally conservative policies had united him with the conservative right.</p>
<p>The d&eacute;tente did not hold. When Graham was up for reelection in 2014, tea partiers <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/26/lindsey-graham-s-tea-party-opponents-are-emerging.html">were chomping</a> at the bit to defeat him. The only thing they lacked was a candidate who could win in a Republican primary, where Graham needed 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run off.</p>
<p>"There was speculation that he would face severe tea party resistance," says Robert Wislinski, a political strategist based in South Carolina. "[But] that never really materialized." Graham raised $13 million for the primary race, and mobilized a powerful campaign. Five challengers who were seeking their first elected office, and one incumbant state senator, ran against him, but their combined campaign war chest was only about $2 million. The Republican opposition was split, and Graham's opponents weren't particularly well known. Nor did the opposition <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/06/how-lindsey-graham-stomped-the-tea-party/372521/" target="_blank">get any help</a> from national tea party activists like Sarah Palin, who remained silent on the race. "The conservative opposition could not unify for the singular purpose of defeating Graham," wrote the conservative blog <em>RedState</em> <a href="http://www.redstate.com/diary/uncle_odie/2015/01/20/can-lindsey-graham-beat-tea-party-twice/">in January,&nbsp;</a> and Graham won with 56 percent of the vote.</p>
<p>So Graham beat the tea party and went on to win easily the general election. But will his presidential bid give the tea partiers another chance to cause him political pain?</p>
<p>So far, the tea party has been silent on his campaign. The South Carolina tea party convention did not respond to request for comment, and neither did multiple national tea party organizations.</p>
<p>Either way, Graham's hawkish rhetoric and lack of national popularity make his chances for election pretty low. If the tea party has their way, those chances might be even lower.</p>
<p id="correction"><em>Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified who submitted the list of offenses to the Executive Committee of the South Carolina Republican Party. </em></p></body></html>
Politics2016 ElectionsElectionsThe RightTop StoriesThu, 21 May 2015 10:00:11 +0000Jenna McLaughlin275506 at http://www.motherjones.comHere's What Osama bin Laden Wrote About Climate Change http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/05/read-bin-ladens-thoughts-climate-change
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<html><body><p>On Wednesday morning, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a trove of newly declassified documents discovered during the 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. Among the many letters, videos, and audio recordings <a href="http://www.odni.gov/files/documents/ubl/english/Letter%20Implications%20of%20Climate%20Change.pdf" target="_blank">is</a> an undated document apparently written by bin Laden discussing the "massive consequences" of climate change, a phenomenon he describes as having more victims than wars.</p>
<p>The newly released document is <a href="http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE69028P20101001?sp=true" target="_blank">very similar </a>in content and language to a recording released in 2010, in which the Al Qaeda leader expounded on climate change and criticized the international community's lackluster relief efforts in response to flooding in Pakistan. The speech, about 11 minutes in length, was accompanied by a video compilation that included images of natural disasters and Bin Laden.</p>
<p>In the document, Bin Laden calls attention to the fate of Pakistani children, who, he says, had been "left in the open, without a suitable living environment, including good drinking water, which has exposed them to dehydration, dangerous diseases and higher death rates." He also laments that "countries are annually spending 100 thousand million euros on their armies" while failing to address the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan.</p>
<p>This was not the only time Bin Laden spoke about climate change. In a <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-03-25/bureaucracy-terror" target="_blank">different letter</a> between Bin Laden and senior Al Qaeda leaders&mdash;also seized during the 2011 raid and written about by <em>Foreign Affairs</em> in March&mdash;Bin Laden remarked on a study about climate change and asked his associates to send it <em>Al Jazeera. </em>In 2010, <em>Al Jazeera</em> <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2010/01/20101277383676587.html" target="_blank">obtained</a> an audio recording of Bin Laden criticizing the "industrial states," the United States among them, for contributing to climate change.</p>
<p>Read the full text of the undated letter below:</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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MoJoClimate ChangeClimate DeskForeign PolicyInternationalIraqOsama Bin LadenWed, 20 May 2015 16:59:14 +0000Jenna McLaughlin275571 at http://www.motherjones.comThe US Military's Sexual-Assault Problem Is So Bad the UN Is Getting Involved http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/un-human-rights-council-us-military-do-better-victims-sexual-violence
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<html><body><p>The US military has a problem with sexual violence. That's the conclusion of the Universal Periodic Review Panel, a UN panel that aims to address the human rights records of the 193 UN member states. This is the second time that the panel has scrutinized the United States; the first was in 2010, when the list of concerns included detention in Guantanamo Bay, torture, the death penalty, and access to health care. Its latest report came out <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/Highlights11May2015am.aspx" target="_blank">Monday</a> morning, and there was a surprising addition to the predictable laundry list of US human rights violations.</p>
<p>In<strong> </strong>one of 12 <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/Highlights11May2015am.aspx" target="_blank">final recommendations</a>, the UN Council urged the US military "to prevent sexual violence in the military and ensure effective prosecution of offenders and redress for victims." Other recommendations included stopping the militarization of police forces, closing Guantanamo Bay, ending the death penalty, and stopping NSA surveillance of citizens.&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/military-sexual-assault-reporting-chain-of-command" target="_blank">For years</a> US lawmakers and activists have complained about sexual assault in the military, but this is the first time the United Nations has addressed the issue<strong>. </strong></p>
<p>Representatives from Denmark and Slovenia were especially outspoken in their <a href="http://webtv.un.org/watch/usa-review-22nd-session-of-universal-periodic-review/4229106421001" target="_blank">criticism</a> of the United States for not doing enough to prevent and prosecute alleged cases of sexual assault. Vojislav &Scaron;uc, Slovenia's representative<strong>, </strong>encouraged the US to "redouble efforts to prevent sexual violence in the military and ensure protection of offenders and redress for victims."<strong> </strong></p>
<p>Stephanie Schroeder, a military sexual-assault survivor who traveled to Geneva for the hearing, said in a press release, "Today's outcome shows that redress can be won before the UN&mdash;and hopefully lead to meaningful change back home."</p>
<p>The UN panels likely decided to investigate US military sexual violence in response to a report last year from the Service Women's Action Network and Cornell Law School's Avon Global Center for Women and Justice and the Global Gender Justice Clinic. It analyzed statistics from the Department of Defense, survivors' stories from federal cases, and interviews with survivors.</p>
<p>The<strong> </strong>report <a href="http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/Clinical-Programs/global-gender-justice/UN-Human-Rights-Council-Recommends-that-the-US-Improve-Access-to-Justice-for-Survivors-of-Military-Sexual-Assault.cfm" target="_blank">concluded</a>, "In cases where an act of sexual assault has already been committed in the military, the U.S. oftentimes fails to promptly and impartially prosecute and effectively redress the assault and thereby violates servicemen and women's rights under international law."</p>
<p>The UN Human Rights Council evaluation targeted the military's<strong> </strong>reporting process, in which the decision of whether to prosecute cases of alleged sexual assault or harassment is left to superiors in the chain of command rather than an outsider with experience in sexual assault. For years,&nbsp;activists and lawmakers in the United States have tried to change this <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/military-sexual-assault-reporting-chain-of-command" target="_blank">protocol</a>&mdash;but leaders in the military have balked<strong> </strong>at bringing civilians into bases and military academies to investigate alleged assaults. Advocates say that commanders should not be in charge of handling these cases, since they are not trained in legal or criminal matters and often directly supervise both the victim and the perpetrator. Victims often are afraid to report the assault, fearing retribution or inaction. In a 2014 RAND Corporation survey of service members who reported sexual assaults, 62 percent of those who responded<strong> </strong>claimed they experienced social or professional retaliation after reporting unwanted sexual harassment, including being fired. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Denmark's representative to the UN Human Rights Council, Carsten Staur, <a href="http://webtv.un.org/watch/usa-review-22nd-session-of-universal-periodic-review/4229106421001" target="_blank">recommended</a> "removing from the chain of command the decision about whether to prosecute cases of alleged assault."&nbsp; His comments marked the "first time that a human rights body has called upon the U.S. to remove key decision-making authority from the chain of command in cases alleging sexual violence," noted Liz Brundige, the Avon Global Center's director, in a press release.</p>
<p>The State Department, the Pentagon, and the US representative to the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment on the council report.</p>
<p>When the UN Human Rights Council last reviewed the United States in 2010, the US government <a href="http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/146379.pdf" target="_blank">promised</a> to respond to all of the recommendations&mdash;including improvements to health care, criminal justice, and other areas of concern&mdash;with a written report of goals. This year, the UN Human Rights Council<a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/Highlights11May2015am.aspx" target="_blank"> commended</a> the US for six areas of "positive achievement," including strengthening the social welfare system in the United States, creating a task force on 21st-century policing, taking some measures to address violence against women, upholding some of the rights of LGBT individuals, improving access to health care, and releasing details on CIA interrogation techniques. When the panel reviews the United States again, the US will have to update the United Nations on its progress on sexual assault in the military.</p>
<p>Of course, the problem of military sexual assault is not limited to the United States. Last year, Swedish UN official Anders Kompass <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/04/29/world/europe/ap-eu-france-military-sex-abuse.html?_r=0" target="_blank">leaked</a> to French authorities an internal investigation detailing allegations that French soldiers on a peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic raped children and traded food for sex. Kompass said that he leaked the report because he was concerned that the United Nations would not disclose its findings or take action. Just last week, after the report was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/07/france-criminal-inquiry-alleged-sex-abuse-french-soldiers-un-central-african-republic" target="_blank">r</a><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/07/france-criminal-inquiry-alleged-sex-abuse-french-soldiers-un-central-african-republic" target="_blank">evealed</a> by the<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/07/france-criminal-inquiry-alleged-sex-abuse-french-soldiers-un-central-african-republic" target="_blank"><em> Guardian</em></a>, French prosecutors <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/07/france-criminal-inquiry-alleged-sex-abuse-french-soldiers-un-central-african-republic" target="_blank">launched</a> an investigation into the allegations. The whistleblower is now under internal investigation, according to the UN secretary general's office, for a "serious breach in protocol" and risking victims' privacy. French President Francois Hollande has <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/30/world/france-un-car-sex-abuse-claims/" target="_blank">declared</a> he "will be merciless" if the allegations are proven true.</p></body></html>
PoliticsHuman RightsInternationalMilitarySex and GenderTop StoriesThu, 14 May 2015 17:15:12 +0000Jenna McLaughlin275096 at http://www.motherjones.comEyewitnesses: The Baltimore Riots Didn't Start the Way You Thinkhttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/how-baltimore-riots-began-mondawmin-purge
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<html><body><p>After Baltimore police and a crowd of teens clashed near the Mondawmin Mall in northwest Baltimore on Monday afternoon, news reports described the violence as a riot triggered by kids who had been itching for a fight all day. But in interviews with <em>Mother Jones </em>and other media outlets, teachers and parents maintain that police actions inflamed a tense-but-stable situation.</p>
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<p>The funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in police custody this month, had ended hours earlier at a nearby church. <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-freddie-gray-violence-chronology-20150427-story.html#page=1" target="_blank">According to the </a><em><a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-freddie-gray-violence-chronology-20150427-story.html#page=1" target="_blank">Baltimore Sun</a>, </em>a call to "purge"&mdash;a reference to the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2184339/" target="_blank">2013 dystopian film</a> in which all crime is made legal for one night&mdash;circulated on social media among school-aged Baltimoreans that morning. The rumored plan&mdash;which was not traced to any specific person or group&mdash;was to assemble at the Mondawmin Mall at 3 p.m. and proceed down Pennsylvania Avenue toward downtown Baltimore. The Baltimore Police Department, which was aware of the "purge" call, prepared for the worst. Shortly before noon, the department issued a statement saying it had "received credible information that members of various gangs&hellip;have entered into a partnership to 'take-out' law enforcement officers."</p>
<p>When school let out that afternoon, police were in the area equipped with full riot gear. According to eyewitnesses in the Mondawmin neighborhood, the police were stopping buses and forcing riders, including many students who were trying to get home, to disembark. Cops shut down the local subway stop. They also blockaded roads near the Mondawmin Mall and Frederick Douglass High School, which is across the street from the mall, and essentially corralled young people in the area. That is, they did not allow the after-school crowd to disperse.</p>
<p>Meghann Harris, a teacher at a nearby school, described on Facebook what happened:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Police were forcing buses to stop and unload all their passengers. Then, [Frederick Douglass High School] students, in huge herds, were trying to leave on various buses but couldn't catch any because they were all shut down. No kids were yet around except about 20, who looked like they were waiting for police to do something. The cops, on the other hand, were in full riot gear, marching toward any small social clique of students&hellip;It looked as if there were hundreds of cops.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The kids were "standing around in groups of 3-4," Harris said in a Facebook message to <em>Mother Jones. "</em>They weren't doing anything. No rock throwing, nothing&hellip;The cops started marching toward groups of kids who were just milling about."</p>
<p>A teacher at Douglass High School, who asked not to be identified, tells a similar story: "When school was winding down, many students were leaving early with their parents or of their own accord." Those who didn't depart early, she says, were stranded. Many of the students still at school at that point, she notes, wanted to get out of the area and avoid any <em>Purge</em>-like violence. Some were requesting rides home from teachers. But by now, it was difficult to leave the neighborhood. "I rode with another teacher home," this teacher recalls, "and we had to route our travel around the police in riot gear blocking the road&hellip;The majority of my students thought what was going to happen was stupid or were frightened at the idea. Very few seemed to want to participate in 'the purge.'"</p>
<p>A parent who picked up his children from a nearby elementary school, says via Twitter, "The kids stood across from the police and looked like they were asking them 'why can't we get on the buses' but the police were just gazing&hellip;Majority of those kids aren't from around that neighborhood. They NEED those buses and trains in order to get home." He continued: "If they would've let them children go home, yesterday wouldn't have even turned out like that."</p>
<p>Meg Gibson, another Baltimore teacher, <a href="http://gawker.com/those-kids-were-set-up-1700716306" target="_blank">described a similar scene to <em>Gawker</em></a>: "The riot police were already at the bus stop on the other side of the mall, turning buses that transport the students away, not allowing students to board. They were waiting for the kids&hellip;Those kids were set up, they were treated like criminals before the first brick was thrown." With police unloading busses, and with the nearby metro station shut down, there were few ways for students to clear out.</p>
<p>Several eyewitnesses in the area that afternoon say that police seemed to arrive at Mondawmin anticipating mobs and violence&mdash;prior to any looting. At 3:01 p.m., the Baltimore Police Department posted on its Facebook page: "There is a group of juveniles in the area of Mondawmin Mall. Expect traffic delays in the area." But many of the kids, according to eyewitnesses, were stuck there because of police actions.</p>
<p>The Baltimore Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>Around 3:30, the police reported that juveniles had begun to throw bottles and bricks. Fifteen minutes later, the police department noted that one of its officers had been injured. After that the violence escalated, and rioters started looting the Mondawmin Mall, and Baltimore was in for a long night of trouble and violence. But as the event is reviewed and investigated, an important question warrants attention: What might have happened had the police not prevented students from leaving the area? Did the department's own actions increase the chances of conflict?</p>
<p>As Meghann Harris put it, "if I were a Douglas student that just got trapped in the middle of a minefield BY cops without any way to get home and completely in harm's way, I'd be ready to pop off, too."</p>
<p>On social media, eyewitnesses chronicled the dramatic police presence before the rioting began:</p>
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<p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a href="https://instagram.com/p/1_XPqniEm3/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">#LIVE #SATELLITE #MondawminMall ..."Cops in Body Armor for H.S. STUDENT"</a></p>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A photo posted by Antonio Butcher (@magava_da_9) on <time datetime="2015-04-27T19:26:11+00:00" style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;">Apr 27, 2015 at 12:26pm PDT</time></p>
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<p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"><a href="https://instagram.com/p/1_VffTmZQR/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">#praying4Baltimore #mondawminmall</a></p>
<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A video posted by BE-Z Clothing Comp (@mrbez4ever) on <time datetime="2015-04-27T19:10:52+00:00" style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;">Apr 27, 2015 at 12:10pm PDT</time></p>
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<p>On Twitter, Baltimore residents vented their frustration with the situation.</p>
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<p>Mondawmin Mall is where lots of students catch the bus, when you shut down MTA how the heck they gonna get home? <a href="https://twitter.com/BaltimorePolice">@BaltimorePolice</a></p>
&mdash; Jay (@Ms_lionesss) <a href="https://twitter.com/Ms_lionesss/status/592776550031982592">April 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<p>These are not gangs. These are children. You close Mondawnin, close the metro stop. And wonder why children are just "around" Mondawnin.</p>
&mdash; Clifton Norbury (@seabethree) <a href="https://twitter.com/seabethree/status/592782735095287808">April 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
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PoliticsCivil LibertiesCrime and JusticeRace and EthnicityTop StoriesTue, 28 Apr 2015 22:00:06 +0000Sam Brodey and Jenna McLaughlin274411 at http://www.motherjones.comHow This Actor Does Antonin Scalia Justicehttp://www.motherjones.com/media/2015/04/actor-edward-gero-antonin-scalia-originalist-play
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<html><body><p>Edward Gero is sitting across the table from me in "the study," a room in Washington, DC's Arena Stage theater where floor-to-ceiling glass windows bathe the space in afternoon light. Gero is both broad&mdash;in his frame, his smile, and his expressive eyebrows&mdash;and sleek, in his signature black T-shirt and blazer. His roles have been as varied as Richard Nixon and Mark Rothko, Salieri and Ebeneezer&nbsp;Scrooge, but offstage he's just an Italian American actor with a passion for wordplay and theatrics.</p>
<p>Only a few miles from here are the chambers of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, another histrionic Italian American with a passion for language, and the character Gero has been playing to packed houses for the last month in <a href="http://www.arenastage.org/shows-tickets/the-season/productions/the-originalist/" target="_blank"><em>The Originalist</em></a>, a new work from the acclaimed playwright <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-strand/22/854/932" target="_blank">John Strand</a>. "How do we manage to respect each other as human beings, even though we may not agree with other's political positions?" Gero says. "That's what the play is about."</p>
<p><em>The Originalist</em> explores the intense relationship between the conservative, controversial Scalia&mdash;an "originalist" in his strict interpretation of the Constitution&mdash;and his fictitious "bleeding liberal" African American law clerk. With just 200 seats wrapping around the stage, the theater gives audiences the intimate experience of sitting in the judge's chambers as the action unfolds. Portraying Scalia on the justice's home turf proved intimidating at first, but also thrilling: "He's vilified by so many, and lionized by others," Gero told me.</p>
<p>To get inside the judge's head, Gero read the Federalist Papers and Joan Biskupic's Scalia biography, <em>American Original</em>. He listened to recordings of Scalia's dissents and his speeches around the country. And he immersed himself in some of Scalia's favorite music: Mozart, Italian composers, operas, and jazz. Finally, he got to meet the man himself.</p>
<p>When Gero portrayed Richard Nixon, first in 1999 and again in 2008, observers and playwrights noted his physical resemblance with Scalia, and encouraged him to play the justice. "It's been in the ether for some time," Gero says. Ten years ago, Gero met Strand and was "audacious" enough to suggest that he write a play with Gero in mind. <em>The Originalist</em> was the tailor-made result of that suggestion.</p>
<p>The play takes place in 2013. Cat, a young, liberal law clerk and Harvard Law grad played by Kerry Warren, attends one of Scalia's speeches. She begins to debate him from the audience on gun control and affirmative action. When Scalia chastises her for speaking out, she admits she has applied for his clerkship. Scalia hires her. Their relationship is one of constant, heated debate leading up to the landmark decision in <em>Windsor v. United States</em>&mdash;the case that would strike down a key clause in the Defense of Marriage Act, opening the path for LGBT couples to wed. Much to her dismay, Cat is charged with writing the first draft of Scalia's dissent.</p>
<p>Gero's biggest surprise upon meeting the 79-year-old Supreme Court justice in the flesh was how open, warm, and funny he was. "You don't get a sense that there's anything hidden," he says. "He's just who he is, unapologetically." That realization helped him humanize Scalia for audiences, and make him a more nuanced character than the imposing and rigid judge who, despite his biting wit on the bench, is known for defending torture, trying to block&nbsp;gay marriage, and speaking out against&nbsp;affirmative action.</p>
<p>"There's a physical life that's very specific to him," says Gero, who describes Scalia's tendency to turn his head or close his eyes as "leading with his ear. He's always listening." When Scalia is talking, Gero says, he's "pugnacious," constantly gesturing with his hands and waving his arms.</p>
<p>For liberal audiences envisioning a Scalia roast, Gero is happy to disappoint. He's become used to standing ovations, but on what he calls his favorite night the audience refused to stand when he took his bow. For the first time in his career he addressed the audience directly during a curtain call, scolding them in character: "You're all liberals!" he shouted, drawing everyone to their feet.</p>
<p>Scalia will not be seeing the show, Gero has learned, although his son John attended on opening night and enjoyed himself: "He thought it was going to be a hatchet job, so he was really quite surprised when it wasn't. He was very gracious and appreciative."</p>
<p>Beyond the physical resemblance and his talent for playing political characters, Gero had a few more aces in the hole. Like Scalia, he's an Italian American whose father emigrated to the United States and discovered a degree of success that seemed impossible in Italy at the time. Scalia's father was a professor of romance languages; Gero's was a prominent union president.</p>
<p>During our meeting, Gero is wearing a tiny lapel pin with American and Italian flags. The heritage he shares with Scalia, he tells me, was a major theme of their conversations. "We didn't talk about the play or politics," he says. They even discovered that their grandparents were from the same little province outside Naples: "I got the sense that he's someone who would easily be part of my extended family."</p>
<p>Gero draws a connection between Scalia's performance on the bench and his student days as the president of Georgetown University's drama club, the Mask and Bauble. "As if he were a trained actor, he knows to make his points at the end of the phrases, and keep the energy going," Gero says. "He's got great skill."</p>
<p>Gero hopes his audiences will leave with more than just a nuanced portrait of Scalia. "This is not a biography," he says. "It's about the democratic process; it's about respecting each other. It's saying, 'Stop the screaming!' And listen. Be open-minded. I think the play really asks that of the audience."</p>
<p>While the show has been extended for another month in DC, Gero thinks it's not just an "inside the Beltway" piece. "It's such a national question&mdash;the idea of raising ones consciousness on how to conduct a civil discourse," he says. "<span class="message_content">I never really quite understood the judiciary in that way. It's like a Socratic classroom. You can finish the argument and go have dinner together, go to the opera together, and leave the work behind&mdash; we'll get to it tomorrow, it's not personal. And that's what we're lacking in the civil discourse, certainly in the political world." </span></p></body></html>
MediaMediaSupreme CourtThe RightTop StoriesTue, 07 Apr 2015 10:00:09 +0000Jenna McLaughlin273171 at http://www.motherjones.comThese Women Are Fighting the Pentagon Over Its Handling of Sexual Assault Claimshttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/women-whistleblowers-lawsuit-pentagon-sexual-assault
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<html><body><p>Four women who say they were victims of sexual abuse while on active military duty filed a federal lawsuit against the Pentagon alleging that the military created and condoned a sexually hostile environment. Speaking at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday, one of the plaintiffs, her lawyer, and several sexual assault prevention advocates described obscene and violent songs, violent sexual assaults, verbal and physical attacks, and retaliation when trying to report crimes and harassment.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Jennifer Smith, one of the plaintiffs and a former Air Force technical sergeant, described being sexually assaulted while deployed in Iraq and subjected to crude songs and pornographic materials stored on government computers while she was stationed in South Carolina. She says she reported both the harassment and the assault but&nbsp;"waited for months and never heard back from anyone."</p>
<p>"All of the officers [in my case] received nothing more than a piece of paper reprimanding them. All were in command, or supervisory roles. All will still lead. They will oversee rape and sexual assault claims and make decisions on whether the case will be prosecuted," she added.</p>
<p>The plaintiffs charge that the military has failed to "prevent and punish widespread sexual harassment" while permitting "widespread retaliation" against victims, and has deprived victims of their constitutional right to a fair trial. They also argue that it's inappropriate for most military commanders to oversee sexual assault investigations since they often have no legal experience and must supervise both the victim and the perpetrator.</p>
<p>Despite efforts by the military to address sexual assault, the <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/military-sexual-assault-reporting-chain-of-command" target="_blank">command structure</a> has been cited as a major roadblock for survivors and has been a target of <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/mccaskill-gillibrand-military-sexual-assault" target="_blank">congressional reform</a> efforts. Commanders sometimes brush off reports of assaults or don't take them seriously. And victims are often afraid to report sexual assault, fearing that their boss will retaliate against them in hopes of quashing a brewing scandal in their ranks.</p>
<p>Over the course of her five tours abroad, Smith recounted being verbally harassed about a confidential medical condition, retaliated against when she complained, and forced by airmen to look at pornographic imagery. When a superior officer exposed himself to her while she was serving in Germany and attempted to assault her, Smith's superiors told her, the complaint reads, to "try to avoid being alone with the Master Sergeant, who outranked her," adding that she later learned he was a repeat offender who had never been reprimanded. In Iraq, she says she was thrown against a wall and sexually assaulted outside a base gym, and took to propping a mop&nbsp;against her door (which had no functioning lock) in case someone tried to break in.</p>
<p>After returning from Iraq, Smith says she found copies of an unofficial songbook in her squadron's liquor cabinet while stationed in South Carolina in 2012. One song described airmen attacking and raping women with ice picks, chainsaws, cheese graters, and other objects to the tune of "The Candy Man;" according to Smith, there were nearly 100 other such songs in a section titled "Chapter 69: The Songs You Could Never Sing to Mother."</p>
<p>The lawsuit details the stories of the other plaintiffs, including Air Force veteran Alyssa Rodriguez, who says she was raped by a man who her commanding officer refused to prosecute. Celina Baldwin, a West Point graduate and commissioned Army officer who is currently on active duty in Kuwait, also says she was raped and sexually assaulted. Plaintiff Carmelita Swain, a former Army sergeant who was stationed in Afghanistan, recalled being raped by a man whose military career remains untainted. She left the Army after a 15 year career, and now reports suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.militaryfamily.org/featured-news/2015-ndaa-provisions.html" target="_blank">most recent</a> Pentagon data, 62 percent of military service members who reported sexual assaults or harassment experienced some type of social or professional retaliation, from a reduction in rank or a decrease in pay to repeated verbal harassment. Fewer than 400&nbsp;service members were convicted for sexual assault last year, though the Pentagon estimates that nearly 26,000 rapes occur every year.</p>
<p>The plaintiffs are not seeking damages, according to their attorney Susan Burke, but instead hope their suit will change how sexual assaults are reported and investigated in the military. They ask that decisions about whether to prosecute or dismiss allegations be made by properly trained&nbsp; officers who have never been in command of either the victim or the accused.</p>
<p>"We all know as we sit here that the best justice is a blind justice," said Burke. "Yet the military by policy, not by law, assigns [the role] of convening authority to persons in the chain of command of the perpetrator."</p></body></html>
PoliticsCrime and JusticeHuman RightsMilitarySex and GenderTop StoriesWed, 01 Apr 2015 10:00:11 +0000Jenna McLaughlin272726 at http://www.motherjones.comCould a Pilot Be Locked Out of a Cockpit in the Skies Over the United States?http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/germanwings-9525-lufthansa-flight-regulations
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<html><body><p>On Tuesday morning, Germanwings flight 9525, en route from Barcelona to&nbsp;Dusseldorf, crashed in the remote southern French Alps. All 150 passengers and crew are presumed dead. Thanks to the quick recovery of one of the plane's flight recorders, some details of the final moments of the flight are now known: one of the pilots was banging on the cockpit door, presumably locked out, while the second pilot&mdash;identified as German Andreas Lubitz&mdash;was in the cockpit breathing normally. On Thursday morning, Carsten Spohr, chief executive of Germanwings's parent company Lufthansa, told reporters, "We must presume that the plane was deliberately flown into the ground."</p>
<p>Federal Aviation Administration regulations require that two people must be in the cockpit at all times in order to prevent these sorts of incidents on flights to, from, and within the United States. And the FAA requires cockpit doors to be locked at all times. If one of the two pilots leaves the cockpit, a flight attendant must take his or her place for the duration of the break. Glen Winn, an aviation instructor at the University of Southern California, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-german-jet-crash-door-20150325-story.html" target="_blank">told</a> the <em>Los Angeles Times</em> that "procedurally, something was very wrong." Pilots "don't leave a person alone in the cockpit," he continued. "They don't do it. Nobody does that."</p>
<p>But there are no European regulations that require all flights to have two crew members in the cockpit at all times.<a href="#correction">*</a> Some European airlines have adhered to the two-person policy, and some have not. German carriers are not required to keep two crew members in the cockpit. After the Germanwings crash, Easy Jet, a British carrier, and Norwegian Airlines announced they would implement the two-person rule.</p>
<p>On an Airbus 320, the plane used by flight 9525, a pilot can reenter a locked cockpit door by punching in a multi-digit code on a keypad. But someone inside the cockpit can temporarily disengage the keypad, keeping the door locked and barring entry to the cockpit for five minutes.</p>
<p>It's unclear whether the Germanwings pilot who was trying to return to the cockpit attempted to use the keypad. But Spohr <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/live/updates-on-the-germanwings-crash-investigation/" target="_blank">said</a> that each member of the flight crew knew the code and that there would be no way a pilot could forget it. He suggested that the pilot may not have tried the code for some reason, or that Lubitz disengaged the keypad or found another way to block the door.</p>
<p>After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, new flight safety <a href="http://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=5470" target="_blank">standards</a> were established and cockpit doors were strengthened to resist intrusions, gunfire, and grenade blasts. So if the keypad is disabled there's little anyone can do to break in for five minutes; brute force will not open the door.</p>
<p>If existing regulations and procedures are followed, a pilot of an airliner in US should not be locked out. But this tragedy certainly will prompt regulators and safety experts in the United States and abroad to review existing rules.</p>
<p id="correction"><em>Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that European regulations also require two people in the cockpit at all times.</em></p></body></html>
PoliticsTechTop StoriesThu, 26 Mar 2015 21:41:40 +0000Jenna McLaughlin272421 at http://www.motherjones.comTed Cruz Expected to Headline Event With a Man Who Compared Muslims to Nazis http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/03/ted-cruz-GOP-presidential-candidate-robert-spencer-jihad-watch
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<html><body><p>Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who announced his candidacy for President on Monday via Twitter, is expected to speak <a href="http://www.yaf.org/eventdetails.aspx?id=13203" target="_blank">at</a> the Young America's Foundation's "New England Freedom Conference" in Nashua, New Hampshire on Friday.</p>
<p>Also on the lineup is Robert Spencer, the co-founder of Stop Islamization of America and director of the Jihad Watch blog. He is notorious for his attacks on Islam. "It's absurd" to think that "Islam is a religion of peace that's been hijacked by &hellip; extremists," he <a href="http://mediamatters.org/video/2010/02/22/jihad-watchs-spencer-its-absurd-to-think-that-i/160747">said</a> at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. He has <a href="http://www.loonwatch.com/2012/03/terrorist-inspirer-robert-spencer-compares-muslims-to-nazis-says-muslims-cant-be-trusted/">compared Muslims to Nazis</a> and <a href="http://www.loonwatch.com/2012/03/robert-spencer-muslim-appointees-deserve-special-loyalty-test-video/">demanded</a> that Muslims take a loyalty test before being appointed to public office in America. He has told reporters that Islam is <a href="http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/09/fathima-rifqa-bary-update-no-abuse-found/">here to take over America</a>, and that President Barack Obama is <a href="http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/05/robert-spencer-watch-obama-may-be-a-mooslim/">secretly</a> a Muslim. His book opens with the rallying cry of the Crusades, "God wills it!" and he calls for a second crusade <a href="http://www.loonwatch.com/2010/05/do-muslims-want-to-reimpose-dhimmitude-or-live-as-equals/#tagcloud">against Islam</a>.</p>
<p>The conference, to be hosted at the Radisson in southeast New Hampshire, <a href="http://www.yaf.org/eventdetails.aspx?id=13203">bills itself</a> as a conservative gathering on "why big government policies are a big problem" and "ways to effectively push back against leftist, big government threats to your freedoms." It's hosted by the Young America's Foundation, which has previously been linked to extremists. Young Americans for Freedom, which merged with the Young America's Foundation in 2011, hosted an event <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001c1cZksnKo9TRcqsmnQl8MW08hszIRDbRg4L3-93lle6VQA4hHmBNLekPoxkDKCAZBFop_au46I2MgdcWv-xHhUlvcifmbI9-WXRVbHrKC7hOw0Hy2vXUifD88BZaKuDZcM9zFI3BlzzRctNa_pbm5HwqoUzo5RPeOqNtec7cTnpofuw6UUsxR3he92fj2LuhLZO8EIXyU3nwnZRwfWrUagcTwM9exaVRAQrS_Gd6Y8wEMAVlt0Vgb6lXpD78QRG-rwFTbRjyQa7E_v5VhNkDQTnluqCyHSR6Vpb0jbPF_c4=&amp;c=Zu7GojTVYR9YouYv6xSy5D6xOxmBbnT0F36MDp72l4whWxV-Zuq8ng==&amp;ch=XOHfV-PSFGpE46WmBTPruvS-IhCvyTJlGonEawVFCbJFqboDIPTOow==">in 2007</a> in which Nick Griffin&mdash; who was the chairman of the British National Party, a white supremacist group, and a Holocaust denier&mdash;spoke. Two board members of Young America's Foundation, Ron Robinson and James B. Taylor, <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/01/ron-robinson-james-b-taylor-young-americas-foundation-white-nationalists">also ran</a> a political action committee that donated thousands of dollars to a white nationalist organization, the Charles Martel Society.</p>
<p>The Council on American Islamic Relations criticized Cruz for agreeing to speak at a conference that is providing a platform to Spencer. "If Senator Cruz believes that he can campaign for president while sharing center stage with a professional hate monger like Robert Spencer, I seriously doubt his ability to win the US minority vote or unite the country as president," said CAIR Government Affairs Manager Robert McCaw.</p>
<p>"Senator Cruz has been invited to speak to Young America's Foundation," says Rick Tyler, a spokesperson for Cruz's campaign. "He intends to keep that commitment."</p></body></html>
MoJo2016 ElectionsReligionTed CruzThe RightTop StoriesWed, 25 Mar 2015 18:36:13 +0000Jenna McLaughlin272366 at http://www.motherjones.com